Conservative leadership candidate Maxime Bernier says he would reduce the existing five personal income tax brackets to two — exempting income up to $15,000, taxing income between $15,000 and $100,000 at 15 per cent, and levying a 25 per cent rate on income over $100,000.

“With my plan, only a small minority of taxpayers, about eight per cent, would pay a 25 per cent tax on incomes in excess of $100,000,” Bernier said at a press conference on Parliament Hill.

“The increase in the basic personal amount will bring a $500 tax cut for all taxpayers who make at least $15,000 in taxable income. About 1.5 million more taxpayers with a low income would not be paying any income tax any more.”

Bernier’s income tax plan tweaks one he pushed for in 2003 while working in the private sector. At the time, he proposed a 20 per cent flat tax with the same $15,000 exemption.

Asked about the change Thursday, Bernier said the issue with the old plan was whether it would leave the federal government enough fiscal room.

He estimates his plan, in the short term, would cost the government between $30 billion and $35 billion — and it would have to wait for the budget to be balanced.

“My government is going to cut taxes gradually, over the course of several budgets, only as the fiscal room is found to allow it. There will be no tax cut financed by borrowed money,” he said.

Instead, he’ll target the boutique tax credits favoured by the Harper government in which he served as a cabinet minister. He cited a recent Fraser Institute paper that estimated at least 50 of them could be eliminated, saving something in the order of $20 billion.

Though Bernier said he plans to review them all before deciding which ones to eliminate, he did identify moving subsidies for public servants and political staffers as something likely to be targeted.

“I have made it clear in my campaign so far that my goal is to reduce the size of the federal government. I believe it intervenes in way too many fields and wastes billions. The current government is going to go from a balanced budget to a $30 billion deficit in only one year after ramping up spending,” he said.

“There is no reason to believe it’s unrealistic to reduce taxes by the same amount over several years. I will put an end to that orgy of spending, stop the growth of government and return the savings to taxpayers.”